Boss Battles

Boss Battles Mode is a Unlockable Stadium mode introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which is very similar to All-Star Mode, except you fight all bosses rather than all characters. Boss Battles Mode is unlocked after the player completes both Classic Mode and 'The Subspace Emissary' for the first time, or in other words, has faced each boss other than Crazy Hand or Master Hand at least once.

Gameplay

The goal of Boss Battles Mode is to defeat every boss in the game with a single stock, or two characters in its co-op mode. When a player begins Boss Battles mode, they are immediately dropped into combat against one of the ten bosses (Tabuu can't be a first boss). Once a boss is defeated, the player is brought to the rest area. The rest area displays all defeated bosses as trophies, a screen that displays the face of next boss to be fought, and has three heart containers, or five in co-op mode, which, like in All-Star, do not reappear even upon later visits to the rest area. This format continues until all bosses are defeated. This format is the same as All-Star Mode. However, the player is not allowed to continue after losing their stock, as it is a stadium mode. The battles occur in random order, except for the battle with Tabuu which always occurs last. Each boss has their own Stamina Bar as one would normally fight them in the Subspace Emissary, including both of the Hands. The final three bosses before Tabuu move and attack at a faster rate (most noticeable with Rayquaza and the Galleom). The player is treated with a picture of one of the bosses upon completing Boss Battles: this picture varies depending on the difficulty level chosen. You may not use stickers in Boss Battles.

The battles in this mode include:

• Master Hand
• Crazy Hand
• Petey Piranha
• Rayquaza
• Porky
• Galleom
• Ridley
• Duon
• Meta Ridley
• Tabuu

Tips

• Play Conservative.

You're facing 10 bosses instead of one, and have 1 life instead of 4, so you can't give a frenzy of attacks at once. Wait for the gaps between attacks, then strike briefly, then prepare to evade the next attack. Strike a single multiple hit quick attack, then retreat to shoot projectiles if possible while evading the bosses' moves.

• Use Heart Containers Sparingly

You are given ten bosses to fight, and only 3 Heart Containers. Logically, it is best to use each one after every third Boss, when you are given a Trophy. But some bosses are hard to face with high damage, such as Duon or Porky Minch, so use them when you feel you will be unable to beat the Boss otherwise.

• Abuse Damaging Attacks.

Attacks like Charizard's Rock Smash, the Ice Climbers' Down Smash, Yoshi's Dair, Bowser's Forward smash, Meta Knight's nair, and Lucario's dair inflict a massive amount of damage quickly. Use them, but don't get overaggressive with them. Kill moves like Rest and Warlock Punch work well, but use them only if you know they will defeat the boss in that hit. Attacks with high ending lag lag will almost surely leave you open to an attack. The less time it takes to defeat a boss, the less chance there is you'll receive damage. The best attacks to use are those that will rack up damage as quickly as possible (you have to factor in the damage the attack deals as well as how fast it is).

• Use a Character that is Effective Against or Counters at least One Boss.

Fox, Ness, and Lucas are effective against Duon and Meta Ridley in that they have reflectors or absorbers. Pikachu is effective against any boss that takes to the air, as he can use Thunder to attack from the sky AND detonate attacks like Duon's Missiles/Mines safely. Marth is effective against many bosses in that his Counter inflicts massive damage, as does Ike's.

• Take Advantage of the Boss's Size

Some attacks like Knee Smash have very limited range and are hard to use in normal brawls. For bosses, though, it is very easy, in that you can simply be touching any part of the boss, which easily take up a quarter of the stage, to inflict damage.

• Always Dodge

Even if it's on Easy mode, dodge as many attacks of bosses as possible.Use moves like Farore's Wind to dodge. Some attacks of the bosses give you hints of what kind of attack it will be, and others come very quick. So dodge your way to attack without being wide open to be attacked at.

• Effective ways to clear Boss Battles on Intense

• Play it on Co-op with another skilled player, and both use Charizard. Then use Rock Smash constantly on bosses, avoiding Tabuu's Off Waves with Pokémon Change or, if skilled enough, by rolling or sidestepping. Though more difficult, this method is completely viable for solo play as well.
• Play as Meta Knight and continuously spam Nair. While this racks up damage very quickly, the player has to be sure not to get too aggressive, especially since Meta Knight is very light.
• Play as Marth: As Marth, play very defensively by utilizing his fair and Counter. Usually, you can easily hit the boss twice with his fair in between their attacks then Counter their attack to deal even more damage without taking damage of your own. Marth utilizes the counter strategy the best since he has the fastest counter and his counter-strike is almost guaranteed to hit. However, counter doesn't protect against Tabuu's Off Waves so you'll need to dodge them with your rolling or sidestep dodges to clear Boss Battles.
• Play as Lucario: Lucario is one of the best characters for Boss Battles, especially on Intense. This is due to Lucario amazing defensive play, backed up by the best rolling dodges, a counter that has complete invincibility, and his very fast and powerful dair. With Lucario, you utilize a strategy similar to Marth, except you use Lucario's dair instead. As for when to use heart containers, you have to consider the next boss you're fighting as well as your own dodging skills. When you're at low damage, Lucario's attacks are weak and it takes a rather long time to defeat some bosses (though a Lucario's dair at 0% does 1%more damage than Marth's untipped fair). When Lucario is at max power (182%), he can defeat bosses with awing speed, his dair at max power will deal a consistent 22%. Overall, if you're above 100% and you're about to fight the Duon, you're better off grabbing a heart container and taking the extra time to defeat it rather than getting KOd and having to start all over again. On a final note, Lucario's Double Team has invincibility frames as well as counter frames so even though he can't counter the Off Waves, he'll be unharmed during the counter frames of Double Team. If you do use it for this purpose, only use it to dodge the last Off Wave as Double Team doesn't last long enough to protect you from multiple Off Waves. Using Double Team before the last Off Wave will get you KOd due to Double Team's long ending lag.

Recommended character attacks

These are the attacks you should utilize with every character to clear Boss Battles as efficiently as possible. You should usually avoid using attacks with long start-up or ending lag, unless they deal extreme damage (such as Bowser's f-smash), especially on Intense difficulty. The best attacks to use are often your fastest aerials as well as a Counter if your character has one. On a final note, d-smashes that strike multiple times can easily land all their hits against grounded bosses due to their large size, so it is advisable to utilize them whenever possible.

Each Character's most viable attack is listed first.

• Mario: Bair, uair, u-tilt, d-smash (when you're you're capable of landing both hits).
• Luigi: All aerials are viable, u-tilt, d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits), Super Jump Punch (advisable to use only when the boss is within the KO range).
• Peach: Nair, uair, fair, u-tilt, Toad.
• Bowser: F-smash (be careful when using this, especially on Intense since it has long start-up and ending lag), u-smash, fair, uair, d-tilt, Whirling Fortress (a risky, but effective way to rack up a lot of damage on airborne bosses).
• Donkey Kong: Bair, uair, d-tilt, Giant Punch (only charge when the boss is unable to be attacked), f-smash (as a finisher), Hand Slap (only viable on grounded bosses).
• Diddy Kong: Uair, bair, d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits).
• Yoshi: Dair, uair, nair, d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits).
• Wario: Uair, bair, dair, f-smash, Wario Waft.
• Link: Fair, bair, dair (is risky to use, as a finisher), f-smash (risky but very damaging), d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits).
• Toon Link: Bair, nair, fair, dair (is risky to use), u-smash.
• Zelda: Bair, fair, uair, d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits).
• Sheik: U-smash (risky but very damaging if used properly), fair, nair, bair.
• Ganondorf: Bair, uair, dair (as a finisher or if you can thunderstorm), f-smash or u-smash (as a finisher).
• Samus: Bair, d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits), u-tilt, Charge Shot (only charge when you're unable to attack the boss).
• Zero Suit Samus: Bair, uair, fair, u-tilt.
• Pit: Fair, bair, f-smash, u-tilt, d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits).
• Ice Climbers: D-smash (when boss is grounded), bair (when boss is airborne).
• R.O.B.: Fair, uair, u-tilt, Robo Beam (only in appropriate situations).
• Kirby: Bair, uair, Hammer (airborne version only, risky but very damaging), f-smash (as a finisher).
• Meta Knight: Nair, d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits).
• King Dedede: Bair, fair, u-tilt.
• Olimar: Fair, bair, uair, u-smash.
• Fox: Uair, bair, fair, u-tilt, u-smash (as a finisher).
• Falco: Bair, uair, dair, any smash (as a finisher).
• Wolf: Bair, uair, d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits), u-smash.
• Captain Falcon: Uair, bair, fair (is risky due to hit-lag), d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits, but is risky), Falcon Punch (as a climatic finisher).
• Pikachu: Nair, dair, uair, u-tilt, Thunder (in appropriate situations), f-smash (as a finisher).
• Pokémon Trainer:

• Squirtle: Fair, uair, bair, u-tilt, u-smash (as a finisher).
• Ivysaur: Uair, fair, u-tilt.
• Charizard: Rock Smash (this basically the only move you'll need), u-smash, bair, uair.

• Lucario: Dair, Double Team, uair, nair (only upon landing).
• Jigglypuff: Fair, bair, uair, Rest (ONLY use as a finisher).
• Marth: Fair, Counter, uair, bair, d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits), u-smash (as a finisher or against Petey Piranha).
• Ike: Bair, fair, uair, Counter, d-smash (when you're capable of landing both hits, but it is risky), f-smash (as a finisher).
• Ness: Bair, uair, nair, u-tilt.
• Lucas: Fair, uair, nair, d-smash (only when you're capable of landing all hits, but is very risky), u-smash (as a finisher).
• Mr. Game & Watch: Nair, fair, dair, uair, u-smash or f-smash (as a finisher).
• Sonic: Bair, fair, f-tilt.
• Snake: F-tilt (on grounded bosses), nair or dair (on airborne bosses), bair, uair.

Challenges

There are eight trophies obtained by completing Challenges in Super Smash Bros. Brawl involving Boss Battles Mode. Golden Hammers cannot be used to break them, except in PAL.

• Clearing Boss Battles with 10 characters gives you the Subspace Gunship trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles with 20 characters gives you the Jyk trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles with every character gives you the Winged Tabuu trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles on Easy difficulty gives you the Subspace Bomb trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles on Medium difficulty gives you the Shadow Bugs trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles on hard difficulty gives you the Dark Cannon trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles on Very Hard difficulty gives you the Porky Statue trophy
• Boss Battles on Intense difficulty gives you the Galleom Tank trophy

Differences between the Easier and Harder Difficulties

• Bosses have more health.
• The bosses move and attack at a faster rate.
• The bosses are more powerful.

Boss changes from other modes

Several of the bosses are slightly altered from their appearances in other modes.

• Crazy Hand is a boss himself, rather than together with Master Hand.
• Master Hand and Crazy Hand have Stamina Bars like other bosses, rather than the usual HP shown at the bottom.
• Galleom will be fought randomly in one of his two stages.
• There is no time limit to fight Meta Ridley.
• On Easy, Normal and Hard modes, Tabuu's Off Waves do not instantly kill a player who comes in contact with them.
• In lower difficulties, all the bosses' speed, attack power and health are greatly decreased.
• Petey Piranha's cages are empty, as when he is faced in The Great Maze stage of The Subspace Emissary.
• The sky is clear when fighting Petey in Boss Battles, rather than covered in dark clouds.
• The individual boss themes are replaced with generic music, Boss Battle, except for Master Hand, Crazy Hand and Tabuu. They use the music Final Destination (Melee), Giga Bowser (Melee), and Boss Battle Song 2, respectively.
• Items do not appear.
• Each time you defeat three bosses, a trophy will appear in the rest area.
• The camera behaves as it does in normal Brawls rather than as it behaves in the SSE.

Trivia

• After you beat a boss, if you jump off the edge and go below the lower or side blast line, you will not be KO'ed.
• This mode resembles Kirby Super Star's "The Arena" in many ways:
  • Between boss battles, there is a rest area where you can occasionally heal yourself. When you get a Maxim Tomato/Heart Container, it disappears for the rest of the mode.
  • This rest area is not present before fighting the first boss.
  • To go to the next boss, you must go to a specific place in the rest area; the warp star in The Arena and the beam of light in Boss Battles.
  • The bosses are fought in a random order, except the final one, which is the final boss of the game.
  • There were some changes in the boss fights, to fit them in this mode/sub-game.
  • After every fight, you'll see which boss is next.
  • Every boss that has the normal boss fight music has their music changed with music exclusively made for that mode/sub-game.
  • When you lose, you have to start all over again.
• When you defeat a boss, you do not get it as a trophy. but for some reason, it appears as a trophy in the backround of the resting area.
• You can already start when the countdown bar isn't empty yet.

External Links

Boss Battles Mode in action